


Stay With Me

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Prompt Table [3]
Category: You Me At Six
Genre: Gen, Gory leg wound, caving, quite a few mentions of blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 08:41:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8006101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan just wanted to go caving with his friends for his birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay With Me

**Author's Note:**

> Number 4 - Natural Disaster.

Josh, Max, and Chris have never quite understood Dan and Matt’s interest in caving, but when Dan asks them to go caving with the two of them for his birthday, they can’t say no. They spend the week before talking them through everything they need to know, making sure they can be as safe as possible.

On the morning of Dan’s birthday, he and Matt triple check that they have everything before loading it into the car, the others waiting, still half-asleep, in the car. Once they get there, Dan and Matt stop them at the entrance to the cave.

“Right, gear check,” Matt announces, and the three of them groan.

“Come on, you checked it twice last night, three times before we left, and once when we got out of the car. Do you really need to check again?” Josh sighs, and they both frown.

“Better to check it ten times, than have it fail once,” Dan tells him seriously, and they sigh, but nod all the same. They get where he’s coming from. “Right, harnesses,” he announces, turning to Matt first. They check each other’s harnesses, then check each of the others’. Once they’re happy that the harnesses are still properly fitted and just as sturdy and functioning as the last time they checked, they run through a checklist, making sure all of them have everything, and know where it’s stored in their rucksacks. They each have three sources of light; a first aid kit; food; water; containers to pee in; a few flares; two rolls of glow in the dark, biodegradable trail marker tape; and a change of clothes.

After one last check to make sure their elbow and knee pads are tight and secure, and they’re all wearing gloves, Dan secures the rope for their descent. He goes down first, talking the three of them through it as they come down, then Matt comes down last. They’d agreed ahead of time that they would keep the three of them between them at all times, it just made sense.

As they walk through the first stretch of the tunnel, Dan hears Matt’s voice from the back of the group. 

“Dan, give Josh a smack for me,” he requests, and Dan immediately looks round, catching Josh fiddling with his helmet. Dan doesn’t hesitate to reach out and slap Josh’s arm hard.

“Do you want to end up with your brain splattered across the walls of this fucking cave?” He snarls, and Josh shakes his head meekly. “Then stop fucking with it. It is, or _was_ , in exactly the position it needed to be to keep as much of your skull protected as possible,” he snaps, then reaches out and fixes Josh’s helmet, making sure it’s back in the right position. “Now leave it, yeah?”

After that, they don’t have any other issues, spending the next three hours walking and crawling through the seemingly never ending tunnel. Dan’s just considering suggesting they stop for a rest and something to eat when he feels it. He freezes, some distant part of his mind happy to note that Josh remembered the very first thing he and Matt had drummed into them. ‘If the person in front of you stops, freeze. Don’t walk into them, don’t go around them. You have no idea what made them stop, so trust their instincts.’ The four of them wait patiently as Dan listens, reaching out his left hand to press against the tunnel wall.

After a few seconds, he turns to them with wide eyes, grabbing Josh’s shoulders and turning him around.

“Go! Quickly! Go, go, go, now!” He barks, and the other three spin around, Matt leading them back the way they came as quickly as possible. But it’s too late, within a minute, the tremors have caught up with them, and one wall starts to crumble, directly beside where Josh is standing.

The collapse is thankfully quite minor, not enough to trap or crush them. When it settles, though, Josh is covered in dust and small rocks, slumped against the still standing wall and whining softly. Dan immediately shuffles over to him as Matt climbs over Max and Chris, checking they’re both ok as he goes. They both start to check him over, but they don’t have to look far. There’s a large, and quickly growing, blood stain on the thigh of his jeans.

“Fuck,” Dan hisses, swinging his rucksack off of his back quickly. “Max, Chris, I need more light here, quick,” he rushes out as he pulls the first aid kit out of his bag. Within seconds, they’re both beside him, their headlamps aimed at Josh’s leg as they both pull out their spare lights and point those at his leg, too.

Dan takes the scissors from his kit and cuts the leg of Josh’s jeans from the ankle right up to the groin.

“Woah, careful with the goods, there,” Josh groans, laughing slightly hysterically, and Dan doesn’t have to ask Matt, he immediately shuffles around until he’s face to face with Josh, talking softly to him as he slips his water bottle from the side pocket of his rucksack, coaxing him into drinking some, then splashing some on his face to keep him alert.

Dan works quickly, cutting the cloth a little more to get better access to the deep gash in the inside of Josh’s left thigh. The very second he pulls the cloth away from Josh’s skin, he knows the femoral artery’s been damaged. There’s too much blood for it not to be. He curses softly, quickly taking his climbing gloves off, disinfecting his hands, and pulling on latex gloves. He sifts through the first aid box for a second, then when he has what he needs, he taps Josh’s wrist with his fingers to get his attention. Once Josh’s glassy, massively dilated eyes are on him, he smiles grimly.

“I’m sorry, this is going to hurt,” he warns, and Josh nods clumsily, letting his head flop to the side to look at Matt again. Once Dan’s sure Josh understands, he wraps the tourniquet around Josh’s thigh, just above the wound, and pulls it tight. Josh whines softly and mumbles something to Matt that Dan doesn’t here, but he hears Matt murmuring soothingly to him and Josh starts to relax. 

Dan starts cleaning the blood from around the wound, and notices with relief that the bleeding has slowed considerably, now only oozing a droplet or two every minute or so. He checks the rest of Josh’s body, and once he’s sure nothing else needs immediate attention, he looks up at Matt.

“Right, I’ve made sure he’s not going to die any time soon. I’ve got a collapsible stretcher in my rucksack, we can either carry him out on that, or two of us can stay with him while the other two go for help,” he rattles off, and the four of them look at each other for a minute as they consider it. Dan doesn’t really want to use the stretcher, doesn’t want to risk doing more damage; but he knows the longer Josh is down here, the worse he’ll get, and that tourniquet will only work for so long.

“I think we should carry him out,” Chris says finally, and Dan nods, murmuring his agreement. They both turn to Matt and Max, and after a few more seconds, they both nod.

“You’re right. We need to get him out of here,” Matt agrees, and Dan nods, turning to Josh, squeezing his forearm gently.

“What about you, Jay? If anyone gets a say here, it should be you,” Dan prompts gently, and Josh hums softly as he thinks about it.

“My leg hurts and I feel kinda dizzy, so I think I wanna get out of here quick,” he slurs softly, and they nod.

Chris grabs the painkillers from the kit and helps Josh take two of them while Matt and Dan wrestle the stretcher out of Dan’s bag and set it up, making sure it’s sturdy and secure before the four of them work in tandem to slowly, gently move Josh onto it.

Once he’s settled and strapped down, Max and Dan carefully lift the stretcher, Matt and Chris leading the way as they head back out the way they came. Dan, being at the end of the stretcher closest to Josh’s head, keeps him talking as much as possible.

“M’sorry for fucking with my helmet earlier,” Josh mumbles as they crawl through one of the low ceilinged parts of the tunnel; Dan pushing the stretcher from behind, Max tying a rope around the handle of the stretcher, tying the other end to a carabiner clipped to his harness to pull it from the front. Dan snorts slightly, having completely forgotten about that.

“It’s fine, I’m sorry I was so harsh with you about it. I just… I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about people getting hurt because their gear malfunctioned, or they weren’t wearing it properly. I just didn’t want you to get hurt. I did a real good job of that, huh?” He mumbles the last part guiltily, and as soon as they crawl out into the higher, wider part of the tunnel, Josh turns his head towards to Matt.

“Matt, give Dan a smack for me,” he requests, and though he looks confused, Matt does as asked, slapping the back of Dan’s shoulder, nowhere near as hard as he normally would, for fear of making him lose his grip on the stretcher. “He was talking like me getting hurt was his fault,” Josh explains sleepily, and Matt narrows his eyes at Dan.

“Don’t worry, Jay, I’ll slap the shit out of him for you later,” Matt promises, and Dan laughs softly, but nods all the same, accepting his ‘punishment’.

When they get back to the rope they’d left at the entrance, they have a quick discussion about the best way to get Josh out.

“Alright, I think the best thing to do, is; Chris and I climb out first, once we’re up, you guys tie the rope around the stretcher. Once we’ve pulled him up, we’ll untie it and throw it back down so you can get out,” Matt suggests eventually, and the four of them nod. Max and Dan sit down on the floor beside the stretcher while they wait, and when Max notices Josh starting to doze off, he starts singing loudly and obnoxiously, pulling startled laughs from Matt, Chris, and Dan, and several annoyed curses from Josh.

Between the two of them, they manage to keep Josh awake and mostly alert until Chris whistles down to them, signalling that they’re ready to pull Josh up. Once they’ve got him secured, Dan whistles back, and the stretcher starts inching upwards. Dan and Max both sit back down, and Dan sighs deeply.

“This wasn’t the experience of caving I wanted you guys to have,” he mumbles, and Max snorts.

“To be honest, I’m just glad it wasn’t a real life reenactment of The Descent,” Max reassures him, grinning to himself at the loud burst of laughter he gets from Dan. “Seriously, though, Josh’ll be fine, and that’s because of you and Matt. You stayed calm, you did what you had to to make sure he’d be ok, and you got us out safe. It may not have given us the best experience of caving, but it’s made us realise that the massive amount of respect we had for both of you wasn’t anywhere near enough,” he insists, and Dan ducks his head, grinning to himself and flushing slightly.

At that moment, there’s a whistle from overhead, and the rope drops back down.

“You go up first,” Dan prompts, but Max hesitates, looking up at the distance he needs to climb.

“I don’t know if I can,” he admits softly, turning back to Dan and smiling slightly at the concerned look Dan’s giving him. “I wrenched my shoulder coming through that last low tunnel, I don’t know if it’ll support my weight,” he elaborates, and Dan nods in understanding.

He motions for Max to follow him over to the rope, then secures the carabiners on both their harnesses to the rope, then uses a few spares he has hanging from his belt loop to clip Max’s harness to his own.

“Ok, you’re going to wrap your arms around me, and you’re going to use your legs to help me climb, and we’ll be out of here in no time, alright?” He coaches, and Max nods, wrapping his arms around Dan’s waist, holding tighter with his uninjured left arm. “Ready?” Dan asks, and Max nods, working with Dan to climb, and only two minutes later, Matt and Chris are pulling them up over the edge and into warm daylight.

Matt had called an ambulance as soon as he got to the surface, so they don’t have to wait long for it. Once the ambulance has taken Josh away, the four of them trek back to the car to follow them to the hospital. They’re all worried, not knowing what to expect as a nurse leads them to Josh’s room, and when they see him sitting up in bed, and the first thing he says is, “When can we go caving again?” All Dan can do is laugh.


End file.
